"I told you, I would've parked in our space if some asshole didn't take it." Luke said, both of us complaining about the not so long walk that we had to take to get to the right side of our apartment. He dug around in his pockets in search for something, getting us both to stop walking in our tracks. He rolled his eyes and groaned, "I left my keys in my car."

"Only you could manage to do that." I joked.

"You know what?" He asked, glaring at me. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What?" I replied as my lips curled into a smile. He groaned again and went back to his car, leaving me in the middle of the sidewalk that wasn't too far from our building. I would've already gone inside myself but today had been the day where I left my keys to my house at home.

I looked down to my phone, realizing that it was getting pretty late. We left for home tomorrow since tomorrow was Travis' wedding and we would need all the sleep we could get for such a hectic day tomorrow.

The second I looked up I saw someone jogging towards me with a cardboard box being held tightly in their arms. I recognized the floppy blonde hair and began turning around, only for him to start calling out my name.

"Autumn!" Ellis shouted, this time leaving me with no choice but to face him. I glanced over to Luke who hadn't even made it back to his car yet and met Ellis halfway, giving him a look that lacked any emotion.

He set the box down by his feet and flattened out his messy hair, "Hi." He breathed out, giving me a gentle smile.

"Hi," I shortly said. I peered down to the boxes at his feet. "Moving in?" I asked, hoping that I wouldn't have to see him everyday again.

"Out, actually." He replied. He awkwardly coughed, "I'm, uh, moving back in with my brother." He explained. I nodded my head, trying to show a lack of interest without coming off as too rude.

"So how are you?" He tilted his head slightly to the side, looking down to me.

"I'm good." I quickly answered. "You?"

"Same." He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand as he continued. "Cianna and I broke up, but what can you do." He laughed this time to much of my surprise which I barely smiled at, nodding my head again.

He sighed as he noticed my crossed arms and small amount of words coming from my mouth, taking it as I wasn't interested in anything he had to say to me.

"Autumn," He began, looking into my eyes for the first time. "I know what I did was really stupid." He told me, making me roll my eyes. "Just please, hear me out." He begged. I tapped my foot on the ground, leaving him without any word and let him make the decision of wanting to continue on his explanation or not.

"I messed up, a lot. And I regret it more than anything." He explained, shoving his hands into his front pockets. It was silent for a few moments, the only thing being heard with the normal sound of the city. His hands fell from his pockets and he looked around, shaking his head then continuing on.

"I don't know how else to put this," He said, then continuing to trip over a few words. "I love you, Autumn. It's as simple as that."

I was taken back from his words, expecting an apology rather than an 'I love you'. I was at a loss of words for myself, mostly because I couldn't split my feelings right now. I couldn't tell if I was angry or sad or embarrassed or anything. Then there was the feeling of a boy telling me that he truly loved me for the first time. As the that thought settled into my head, the dominating emotion lashed out on him.

"You think you love me?" I asked rather harshly, pointing a finger at him. Ellis took in a sharp breath and nodded at my words. I let out a loud laugh which seemed to have no effect on him. I shook my head as I looked up to the dimly lit sky, a smile appearing on my face as I looked back up into his nervous eyes.

"It took you cheating me, me getting in a relationship with someone else, then having you get cheated on to realize you 'love me'?" I raised my voice at him as I put my last two words in air quotes to get my point across that I thought he sounded ridiculous.

"I'm sorry that I didn't realize it until now." He replied, his tone just as bland as before.

"You didn't realize it just now, because you didn't realize it at all." I snapped. "You don't love me. If you did, you wouldn't have broken me into pieces and let another guy come and put me back together." I explained, narrowing my eyes at him as I took a step towards him.

"I've never loved somebody before!" He yelled, making it more dramatic than it should have been.

"Then how do you know that you love me?" I questioned, immediately getting him to shut up as he didn't have an answer.

"I don't like seeing you with him." He said after a moment of silence, glancing over my shoulder. I turned around to see an unhappy Luke walking over to us.

"You don't like seeing me with my boyfriend?" I scoffed. "I didn't like seeing you with a half naked girl in your house while we were still together." I said.

"Ignore that, Autumn. Ignore all of that. Do you even remember that we were together for two years before all of this happened?" His voice broke at the end of his sentence, but it was still hard to tell whether he was faking it or not.

"I sure as hell do! That's why I never-"

"I can hear you guys all the way down the street." Luke butted in and he came up behind me, tightly wrapping an arm around my waist as he looked between us.

"I don't care about that, can you please give us some time?" Ellis peered over to Luke for a quick second, surely not long enough to notice his jaw clenching at his words.

"I'm not going to leave just so you can yell at her." Luke told him, his tone stern. I glanced up to him since I hadn't actually been familiar with Luke's angry side. Maybe once or twice for a few seconds, but not necessarily like this.

"I'm just trying to get back on good grounds with her." Ellis rolled his eyes at him.

"Because disrespecting him is going to get you anywhere." I mumbled, trying to step between the two boys just in case.

"He is part of this." Ellis told me, as if I hadn't known any earlier.

"The main part, actually. She's better off now, just leave her alone." Luke rushed his words and I could feel his arm tense up underneath my hands that were gripped around his bicep.

"You managed to have sex with her while I as a room away." Ellis laughed at him, more at both of us. "That makes you such a great boyfriend for her." He sarcastically said.

I pushed pass Luke to get face to face with Ellis this time. "First of all, we didn't have sex. Second of all, that's not even any of your business. That shouldn't define our relationship to you either."

"Autumn, let's go." Luke tried pushing onto my shoulder to get me to walk since he hated fighting as much as I did, but this time it had been important to me to get my point across.

"No, I'm not leaving until he realizes that what he said was wrong." I stopped in my tracks and stared at Luke, hoping for anything other than a blank stare from him but all he did was take a step back and let us continue on.

I sighed as I turned back to the curly headed boy, "I don't love you, Ellis. And you telling me that you love me doesn't change a damn thing. Just because I used to be happy with you doesn't mean that I still am. I'm in an even better point in my life with someone who cares about me a lot more than you ever did." I peered over to Luke who I couldn't tell was pissed or flattered, so I continued on. "You can't just hold things over my head like that. I don't think you love me and I'm sure you know you don't love me." I told him.

Ellis blinked at me a few times before a frown pulled his lips downwards. "It's disgusting that you would even think that." He scoffed as he crossed his arms.

"That I would think that or I would know that?" I shot back. He gave me no reply which is just what I expected. "So next time you want to get on good grounds with a girl, don't shame her stupid things like being with someone who she really likes or even her sex life. It's seriously pathetic, especially as your age." I said to Ellis. I didn't want a reaction out of him, just for him to hopefully soak in some useful information.

"You sound like a child." I rudely said, glaring down at me.

"And you sound like a fucking idiot." Luke stepped in, getting too close for my own comfort to Ellis. If any of them had been any more angry I would've probably had to stop them from knocking each other out. This time Luke turned to me, "Autumn, we're leaving. Please, let's go." He nearly begged.

I obliged instantly, rushing down the sidewalk in a matter of seconds, Luke hurrying to my side as we left Ellis by himself.

"Good luck with her virginity!" He shouted at us, mostly at Luke and it made my blood boil from how insensitive he had become.

Luke turned over his shoulder to yell back, "I've already had enough luck with that!" He answered.

I wanted to be angry about the whole thing, but Luke's response had actually made me laugh. Usually I would have probably scolded him about keeping things like that between us, but it was too good of response to be mad about.

I felt Luke's fingers intertwine with my own as we made our way around the corner and to our own apartment. I kept my head down the whole time as I kicked a few rocks as my emotions had yet to settle inside me.

"Autumn?" Luke's soft voice rang through my ears and I snapped my head up to look at him. We climbed up the steps, not sharing a word until we got to the front door.

"Are you okay?" He asked, jiggling his keys in the door. I nodded my head a few times as I was just feeling a little confused as to what had just happened. It had felt like so much in a time frame of ten minutes even though it was mostly me yelling at this dumb kid.

"Hot showers and then straight to bed?" He said this as if it was a question, but it was more of a statement to me. He knew that whenever I felt out of it it's exactly what I wanted.

He led me to my room and stood in my doorway and I searched around my room for a few towels.

"You did nothing wrong, I hope you know that." His voice was calm and soft, it was incredible how much of a contrast there was from just a few minutes ago.

"It just sucks." I sighed. "I don't want to have to deal with him and I don't you to either. You shouldn't have to be a target to him just because I'm with you." I explained, Luke came into my room and sat down on my bed with me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me towards him.

"I want to make you happy." He said, even though it didn't really fit our conversation.

"You are making me happy." I assured him.

"Then we don't have anything to worry about." He replied, kissing my forehead and letting his lips linger for a few seconds before leaving me in my own thoughts.

-

A/N:

mean girls 2.0

w o w it is really late sorry for any errors